In September, Cedre’s Emergency Response Department received a dozen solicitations and requests for information. All these cases were small-scale incidents involving oil or ships drifting at sea, small spills of oil or hazardous substances in inland waters, including a 20 cl on land spill of mercury on beaten earth on private property and a spill of domestic fuel in Saint Pierre & Miquelon. A request for details on the exact composition of the heavy fuel oil spilt in the incident at Donges refinery and a request for information on response to solid waste in ports also mobilised the department.

 

On 22 and 23 September, the partners of the Lost Cont European Interreg project, namely the Préfecture de région Aquitaine (France), Sasema (Spain), Préfecture maritime de l'Atlantique (France), ITPM (Portugal) and Cedre ( France) were joined by Ifremer to participate in an experiment in the Iroise Sea, organised by the Préfecture Maritime de l'Atlantique, which involved monitoring the drift of a customised container (Argos buoy, AIS, flashing light…) over 24 hours.  These at sea trials were followed, on 25 and 26 September, by an international workshop organised by Cedre on the causes of container loss and the best solutions for combating the problem or decreasing the risks. Both the trials and the workshop achieved their goals successfully, enabling the collection of much useful data and information for the next stage of the project.

From 1st to 3rd September, two representatives from Cedre and CETMEF led a practical training course in Saint-Pierre & Miquelon. Around thirty participants took part in the course, mainly from the Equipment Directorate, but also representing Maritime Affairs, the Agriculture Directorate, the Gendarmerie, the Mairie de Saint-Pierre and the Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage. A Polmar exercise, involving boom deployment, storage tank preparation, skimmer launch and clean-up of a portion of riprap, concluded this training course on 4 September. Many lessons were learnt, as much concerning equipment deployment as in terms of the necessary cooperation between the various local stakeholders. Maintaining the training effort in this archipelago seems to be of interest, in order to involve the stakeholders who did not participate in this course and to develop other aspects, such as those involving response in inland waters.

The August Cedre Newsletter mentioned Cedre’s interdepartmental accreditation for civil protection through the order of the Ministry of the Interior. The second part of this accreditation, which addresses Cedre’s international accreditation for civil protection, was the subject of an order by the Ministry dated 28 August. While Cedre has previously been mobilised for overseas missions on many occasions and in varying contexts, this order now establishes a framework and formally recognises Cedre’s capacity to participate in assistance operations undertaken overseas by the French State to respond to needs of international solidarity, through bilateral or multilateral agreements, in particular within the European Union.

On 16th September, six agents from Cedre arrived in Saint-Vaast La Hougue in Normandy to take part in the Polmar-terre exercice of the Manche department. The scenario for this exercise was based on oil being released from wrecks which sank during the last world war in the Bay of Seine. The aim was to validate the decision-making and command chain as well as to establish stockpiles of protective and pumping equipment. This was also the opportunity to train personnel in clean-up worksite management and the deployment of different types of equipment. The agents from Cedre provided technical advice on pumping exercises and clean-up of beaches and riprap. They also jointly led a series of conferences in collaboration with CETMEF and CISIPH (Centre Interdépartemental de Stockage et d'Intervention du Havre). The topics addressed in these presentations dealt with the behaviour of hydrocarbons, worksite organisation, Polmar organisation, booms, clean-up techniques and the management of waste generated by clean-up operations.

At the beginning of the month, Cedre’s ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management) certification surveillance audit went smoothly. No major or minor non-conformities were identified. The next upcoming event will be in spring 2009 with the certification renewal audit.

As part of a project supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR), two engineers participated in an experiment in the Mediterranean from 19 to 23 September, jointly organised by the French Navy, French Customs and Cedre. The aim of the experiment was to validate the mathematical equations of the CLARA II software (Calculations related to accidental release in the Mediterranean), an operational IT tool for modelling chemical pollution. These equations describe the fate of a chemical slick at sea, in particular in terms of dissolution and evaporation kinetics. During this trial, three substances were spilt and the project partners, École des Mines d’Alès and MERCLEAN, then sampled the water column and surface slicks and monitored gas emissions. In addition, slick signatures were studied using remote sensing equipment on board the POLMAR 2 plane and a CESSNA 172. The trial received support from Météo France in the form of weather forecasts and an evaluation of slick drift patterns using the software programme MOTHY.

Hosted in Oslo on 30th September by the Research Council of Norway, the 8th Ampera executive board meeting was the opportunity to review the activity of this European research network on accidental marine pollution, which is due to come to a close next April. Cedre takes part in this network as a support to Ifremer. A follow-on programme is being considered as part of the new EraNet which is to cover the three current marine EraNet projects (MarinERA, MariFish and Ampera) and to promote an approach by maritime region. The board encouraged the updating of the research project database which can be accessed via the internet (www.amp-research.info), coordinated by the Estonian partner (EstSF). The board also noted the partial financing, by the countries and regions, of the six projects selected by Ampera, following the call for tenders launched in 2007. Amongst these six projects, five involve French partners, of which four (Drifter, Ecoraid, Oildebeach and Toxprof) obtained French cofunding through the ANR programme Precodd 2008, as part of a joint Ampera-France proposal, coordinated by Cedre, with support from Ifremer and also involving the universities of Montpellier and Bordeaux as well as the Institut Pasteur. These four projects, plus RAMOCS, bringing together Spanish, British, Norwegian and Portuguese partners, and DEOSOM, for which the French involvement is awaiting cofunding, were the subject of a presentation to Ampera board members.

Operations to remove the wreck of this container ship (see Newsletters n° 140 to 147), beached on Branscombe Beach, were suspended in late September, leaving on site the stern section, whose removal proved more difficult than expected, surrounded by a collection of vessel and container debris. Now an agreement must be made in order to finance the resumption of operations after the winter season, in a situation whereby the shipowner has constituted a limitation fund representing less than a sixth of the total of currently known compensation claims.

Through the agreement on ecological damages from the pollution caused by the explosion of the Haven oil tanker off the coast of Genoa in 1991 (see Newsletters 10, 36 and 46), the company Smit Tak, upon the request of the Italian authorities, has just completed an operation to clean up oily residues in 90 different areas of the stern section of the wreck, lying in waters 75 m deep. Today, 17 years after the catastrophe, there is now no more oil liable one day to leak from the wreck.